"Hey, man," said Homeless Jack, "the world needs more women with the right stuff on Chromosome 14. Know what I mean?"

"No, I don't know what you mean." I replied.

"Kind of big butts, but not too big," said Jack. "And, some sort of memory loss so they'll forget when men's Y chromosomes cause the men to stare at their butts.

"What the hell are you talking about?" I asked.

"Hell? Hold that thought, man, I'm gonna circle around and come back to it. Anyway, Chromosome 14 is where genetic instructions for some types of big buttedness and memory loss are located. You know, like eye color comes from this or that gene on this or that chromosome. GENES-R-US, man.

"Now, about Hell. You know, I was thinking how absurd it is that millions of people believe that they're going to some spiritual place once they die even though there's not one bit of scientific evidence that this happens. I figure that this tells us more about human psychology than anything else. Humans, by and large, need to believe that their short lives have meaning and that there is some reason to be good instead of being bad. Of course, "good" and "bad" are defined by other humans. It's carrot and stick stuff. It's all faith and no science. And, one of the galling things about some of these people who blindly believe such things is that they're intolerant of other beliefs, even when these other beliefs have some science to back them up.

"For example, if I told some of these Heaven and Hell folks that Arman says we live on in the genes we pass on so long as we've mated wisely, they'd probably say that's absurd even though they know that our genes are passed on when we procreate. They'll accept the reality that we pass on physical things, but they'll balk at us passing on unseen things. At the same time, they'll believe in all sorts of unseen things from their religious beliefs without even an iota of proof of any part of such things.

"Screw them. I've at least got some iota of proof for my beliefs. Let me restate and expand on this for your edification, man. Arman says that we live on in the genes that we pass on if our genes combine with similar genes so that a number of "points" are connected. Don't ask me how many points are needed, man, 'cause I don't know. Anyway, as a rule of thumb, the more our kids look like us, the more of our genes are in them and that means a bunch of points are connected. And, not only is that part of Arman's religious beliefs, but it's solid science as far as the gene things that we can see. The unseen things, well, that's where one has to believe.

"Now, if, as others believe, we live on in some sort of spiritual afterlife and go up if we're good and down if we're bad, great, but that's not something we can really count on except through blind faith. This being the case, I say look for eternal life through a belief in what we know is real and which has some scientific evidence to support it. And, if you also want to believe in the other stuff, so be it. You're a human. You have a brain. You have the right to believe what you want. And, if others don't like it, then let them go swing a dead chicken around their heads or worship however they choose.

"This stuff makes me think about how ignorant most people are about genes, man. Many of these people are the haters who call others names, when these others try to discuss genes and race and similar things, yet the haters don't know the simplest things about the subject.

"Let me lay out a few facts for you, man, so we know we're talking about the same thing. DNA (the main spiral within) is composed of four chemicals that are usually abbreviated as A, T, C and G. All life that we know of, both plant and animal, has these same identical four chemicals. The reason for all the variety of life forms is due to the arrangement or order of these four chemicals--the shuffle. DNA makes up the thousands of genes each of us have and which are our internal blueprint. The genes, in turn, are laid out in precise ways on 23 pairs of chromosomes. Each of us carries 46 chromosomes. Each chromosome has anywhere from 231 genes to 2968 genes on it. Each of us got 23 chromosomes from our father and 23 from our mother. Each chromosome in each pair looks like the other in the pair, except for the sex chromosome if you're male. A male gets one X chromosome and one Y chromosome, while a female gets two X chromosomes. Got it, man? A,T,C and G makes DNA, DNA makes genes, genes are packaged as 23 pairs of chromosomes for a total of 46 chromosomes in humans. When we procreate, male sperm carry 23 chromosomes to join with 23 chromosomes in the female's egg. A "new" human is then formed with half of his or her 46 chromosomes from the father and half from the mother.

"Can you see why it's important that those two halves be similar? Why the 23 and the 23 should be from like to like?

"Okay, man, I see you're going to sleep. Look at it this way: Think of DNA as a four letter alphabet of life. With those four letters, all the words (genes) are written out that determine who we are. These genes are then put into 46 chapters (chromosomes) to make up a book (a living thing).

"Open the book of who you are, and you're there. Letter after letter, word after word, chapter after chapter. Your book may read: blue eyes, blond hair, white skin, 6 feet tall, male, and on and on and on. Someone else's book may read: brown eyes, black hair, brown skin, 5 feet tall, female and also on and on and on.

"Now, each book of life for humans can make more books but it can't make more chapters in the books it makes. It's stuck with 46 chapters. That means the new book can't have all your chapters and all of your mate's chapters or it would have 92 chapters. So, what happens is that 23 of your chapters split off and join with 23 chapters of your mate so the new book also has only 46 chapters, but the chapters are merged so that the new book is not exactly like either of the two older books. That also means that the new life isn't a clone. Now, if you want your new book to be as much like your book as possible, you need to make sure that the 23 chapters from your mate's book are similar to yours. Thus, if the word in your chapter on eyes says "blue" and if you want the new book to have that same word in that chapter, you'd be wise to find a mate whose word in that chapter on eyes also says "blue."

"Yeah, I know man, maybe I'm simplifying this too much, but don't think I'm talking down to you, 'cause I'm not. I'm just trying to put this in my own words so it sounds clearer. Indulge me.

"So, okay, this is really simple and you're wondering what this has to do with religion, right? Well, science hasn't quite caught up to our beliefs yet, but we are confident that it eventually will. And, what if science eventually discovers that genes aren't really the blueprint? Does that mess with Arman's religious beliefs? Nope. We don't worship genes or anything like that. We're into the principles behind these things, man. This faith is always in agreement with true science. It can't be any other way.

"Anyway, not only do our genes give us our physical features which we call the external signs, but they also give us those things that we can't see such as intelligence, personality and much more. We call these the internal signs. Part of these internal signs is that inner spirit or soul or what we often call Essence. In our belief system, unlike some others, we don't think of this as a spirit that somehow comes from elsewhere to inhabit our flesh when we are conceived, but rather that it comes to us from our flesh (our genes). We often compare it to the perfume of a rose. It is coexistent with our DNA and genes and it can't be created without them.

"Arman says that we live on in the genes we pass on if our genes combine with similar genes so that our children pretty much look like us. If we choose our mates properly this is the case. If we choose unwisely, this is not the case. Combining the correct two halves is a little like putting the right parts in a radio, man. The whole thing works right. If you put the wrong parts in, it doesn't work as good or maybe not at all. The right parts help us tune into the ultimate reality. See, man, take that radio as an example. If you don't have the right parts in the radio, you can pray all day long but you won't receive anything. If you want to listen to a radio, you have to have the right parts, the right knowledge (how to operate it) and the right actions (pushing and turning the right buttons).

"Personally, I'm not sure if a spiritual part of Essence goes to join the Spirit in the Sky--the great shuffler of existence--when we die, because I'm not sure if it can still exist without the energy that it gets from the chemical/electrical processes that we call life. I'd be happy if it did, though, so I keep my mind open.

"Arman says that we must combine the two halves--our 23 Chromosomes and our mate's 23 Chromosomes--in a harmonious new whole. If the two halves are very similar, then we live on. There's also a bunch of mystical and revelatory things that are behind this, but I won't bother you with those at this time. Just know that they are there. I will bother you with the simple scientific fact that nature has given man his eyes as his primary source to understand the important things of existence. Trust your eyes, man.

"Arman says that our people who hear the truth and reject it are beyond saving and that they are being deselected for evolutionary fitness through the natural spinning. All we can do is tell others the truth. It's up to them to believe or not believe. We believe that only those who have right essence, right belief and right action will survive. That's from our revelations, man. We believe it.

"One last thing, and this fits in our discussion if you'll give it some thought: Arman says that our nation is inside us.

# # #

THREE BOOKS BY HARD TO PIGEONHOLE H. MILLARD

All three books are now listed on Amazon.com.
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The lefties at the OC WEEKLY said Millard is one of OC's most frightening people.

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Ourselves Alone & Homeless Jack's Religion
messages of ennui and meaning in post-american america by H. Millard
In Ourselves Alone and Homeless Jack's Religion, H. Millard, the hard to pigeonhole author of The Outsider and Roaming the Wastelands, has put together some of his category bending commentaries on post-American America. The commentaries deal with politics, philosophy, free speech, genocide, religion and other topics in Millard's edgy style and lead up to Homeless Jack's Religion, in which Homeless Jack lays out revelations he found in a dumpster on skid row. Browse Before You BuyISBN: 0-595-32646-3